As many of you know, I believe that the network management industry as a whole is in a state of redefinition - or just raw chaos. But one of the brighter spots has been the growth of network change and configuration management (NCCM). Even if it hasn't grown in dollar market value as fast as some areas, like WAN optimization, NCCM is more strategic in my opinion and an ultimately richer and more empowering investment.

In the past, network configuration management had been relegated to an element-management approach associated with the “care and feeding” of new network devices. However, new NCCM products are helping to reshape network management as a more process-aligned discipline with a widening range of values. These include supporting service integrity and service performance, minimizing risk, optimizing security and compliance, managing network assets more holistically, and achieving what in the past were undreamed-of new levels of operational efficiency.

The spate of acquisitions of NCCM vendors in the second half of 2007 reinforces the importance of NCCM technologies. The acquisition of Opsware by HP in July was followed in October with BMC’s acquisition of Emprisa and EMC’s acquisition of Voyence. This left AlterPoint and Intelliden as the two most conspicuous “full-function” NCCM vendors still freestanding in the market, but in our solution center on NCCM, http://itsolutions.emausa.com/ we are or will be also including NCCM solutions from AdventNet, ArcSight, CA, Dorado, Netcordia, OPNET, SolarWinds and UpLogix.

Each of these offers a distinctive footprint – with unique advantages and radically different price points ranging from a few thousand dollars to well into the six figures. Some offer out-of-band support (UpLogix). Others support performance and capacity planning (CA, OPNET and Netcordia). Some are focused on governance, risk management and security – such as Intelliden and ArcSight. Still others, such as AlterPoint, have invested heavily in analytics and governance for lifecycle network asset planning.

After the network build-out in the 1990s, element-specific uni-brand solutions for configuration management had proven unable to keep pace with accelerated needs for scalability, operational efficiency and functionality. In general, element vendor solutions have been command line interface-specific and proprietary in design, and they require a high level of device-specific expertise.